This latest developing story about how the IRS appears to have been targeting conservative groups such as the Tea Party for special scrutiny is one of those stories where you just need to call it what it is, and what it is is screwed up. There is no way the IRS should be utilizing their considerable powers to go after any individuals or organizations based on any kind of political leaning. Those of us on the liberal left who have any functional memory cells remaining after all that acid we dropped and pot we smoked back in the ’60s…

All right, all right. I just couldn’t resist, but I’ll stop, because this really is serious business. And not all of us dropped acid. We did, however, all smoke pot.

Moving on to the actual point that I’m trying to keep focused in my sights, is that it would be really tempting to dismiss this story as a ‘so-what’ since it’s happening to Tea Party folks, and then begin to rattle off the long list of injustices that right-wing Republicans have committed against our side. And, to be honest, I still have to pull back on the reins because I could really have lot of fun with this.

But I believe President Obama is right, and you’d better believe this is close to the last thing he needs right about now is more fuel for the Repubs to throw on the fire they’re building outside his front door:

“This is pretty straightforward,” Mr. Obama told reporters. “If in fact IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that’s outrageous and there’s no place for it.

“The IRS as an independent agency requires absolute integrity and people have to have confidence that they’re… applying the laws in a non-partisan way,” he said. “If you’ve got the IRS operating in anything less than a neutral and non-partisan way then that is outrageous … People have to be held accountable and it’s got to be fixed.”

But one thing I just gotta say; when this does get fixed? Guys? Over there on the right? Guess what I was gonna say.